


Unlevelled & Underequipped

by rinnytin



Series: Banita Week 2020 [2]
Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: First Dates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinnytin/pseuds/rinnytin
Summary: The intention of this being a date, it felt like the air was thick with an awkwardness that felt like one wrong thing could destroy everything. This was an unplayed difficulty for him and he didn’t have any spoilers on the way to level. He was going in unleveled, underequipped and blind. But it was a co-op level and Banri was more than efficient at carrying him.Banita Week Day 1 [ SFW ] - Firsts!
Relationships: Chigasaki Itaru/Settsu Banri
Series: Banita Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966267
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27
Collections: Banita Week 2020





	Unlevelled & Underequipped

**Author's Note:**

> Banita Week Day 1 - Firsts

They’ve been to the arcade together before. They’ve been to cafes together before. Usually, because there was either limited merch that Itaru wanted in UFO Catchers and he wanted Banri to use his  _ Good at everything _ trait to get them for him or he needed to help Banri study without the noises of the dorms to distract them. But to go to both places in one day, with no ulterior motive or reason they were going other than  _ being with each other _ . Itaru wanted to throw up. In the best way possible. Of course.

“You look scared,” Banri commented, smiling as he took Itaru’s hand and pulled him towards the cafe entrance. Itaru was sure that Banri could feel how much his palms were sweating, but thankfully he didn’t seem to mind as he led him to a vacant table, “Relax, Taru. It’s not like this is the first we’ve hung out before.”

“You said it was a date,” Itaru mumbled, taking his hand back and wiping it on his pants. He dressed up for this, well dressed up as much as he could without it becoming too obvious that he was  _ trying  _ to look nice for this. He went in thinking it was a date and dressed for one.

“Well, it’s a hang out with just the two of us. I’m buying us food, taking you to the arcade, and then maybe to dinner. If you want it to be a date, it is. But if that makes you too nervous, it’s just us hanging out.” Banri smiled - tucking his hair behind his ear as he handed the menu to Itaru, “I shouldn’t have asked you out like that, it was vague and probably confused you more.”

“You asked if I wanted to go out with you,” Itaru lowered his head to hide the warmth that spread on his cheeks, “I said yes to a date, but this is my first one so I’m nervous, okay?”

“This is my first date too,” Banri wanted to calm the older man down since while he could feel the butterflies beating around in his stomach, he was able to keep himself under control, “But I’m just pretending we are hanging out so I don’t burst into flames.” 

He laughed when Itaru looked up at him, his surprise obvious on his features before they softened. He didn’t expect Banri to be so candid about being nervous, it was too out of character. 

“I thought that you were a bad boy,” Itaru smiled and leaned on his hand, looking over the menu, “The few times I picked you up from Hanasaki, the girls would flock to say goodbye to you. Thought you would have gone on at least one date.”

“I never really gave a shit ‘bout them and I think that I like guys,” Banri laughed when Itaru’s eyes widened at the statement. He had never said anything about his …  _ preferences…  _ and it caught him off guard that he’d be so honest, “We just said that this is supposed to be a date, what are you shocked ‘bout?”

“I just thought that you were into both,” Itaru shrugged, pretending to read the menu. He didn’t want to continue with his conversation, knowing that it would somehow venture into discussing himself and he wasn’t much of a talker when it came to anything substantial.

“I never cared before honestly, people thought I was hot or whatever but they never wanted to get close to me before you know the whole being a dumbass delinquent thing wasn’t that welcoming,” Banri sighed and leaned over to look at the menu, “Even with you, I thought we were just good friends but then I started thinking about how much I liked hanging out with you and how excited I would get when you’d ask to go to the arcade. Pretty lame, huh?”

“Not at all,” Itaru smiled, for some reason, he thought that Banri was leagues ahead of him in the romance department. He was charismatic and handsome, so it was easy to believe he had at least some experience - but he’s changed so much in the last two years that it was also easy to forget that he used to be a delinquent. But he figured that the same could be said about him before he was a recluse that wouldn’t even dream about getting this close to anyone, “I feel the same. Good to know we’re leveled the same.” 

Banri smiled and shook his head - of course, he would fall for the idiot that almost exclusively talked as he was a game character, but saying that wasn’t one of his charms was a lie. Banri knew full well that Itaru was on the fence about any type of deeper relationship - both romantically and platonically, which is why he made sure to not deviate too far from what the older man was comfortable with for the first date. He liked this cafe and he liked the arcade; not the ideal places for a first date, but they passed the get to know each other phase so it didn’t matter.

“I just want an iced coffee and I’ll eat whatever you pick out,” Itaru smiled as Banri stood up to order at the counter, leaving Itaru to play on his phone while he waited. He was nervous - more than he logically should be, considering that he’s been to the same cafe a handful of times with Banri before. But now with the intention of this being a date, it felt like the air was thick with an awkwardness that felt like one wrong thing could destroy everything. This was an unplayed difficulty for him and he didn’t have any spoilers on the way to level. He was going in unleveled, underequipped and blind. But it was a co-op level and Banri was more than efficient at carrying him. It wasn’t long before Banri returned with their food and he sat down - watching as Itaru fidgeted with his phone and refused to look at him.

“I got you a strawberry shortcake, you said that you liked it the last time,” Banri said, pushing the plate closer to him. Like Itaru this was uncharted territory and despite their full friendship bar, they were working on intimacy points now, and he was nervous. He was confident that things could work out well with Itaru, but whether or not they could move past this awkwardness was up to Itaru. 

“Thanks, I didn’t think you’d remember,” Itaru smiled as he cut into the cake, holding the fork up before offering the bite to Banri. Banri smiled and leaned in to take it, picking up his own fork and doing the same.

“I have a good memory,” Banri shrugged, wiping the crumbs from Itaru’s chin. That wasn’t a lie, his memory was good - but things like this, about Itaru’s likes, dislikes, or things he mentioned in passing were things he specifically made a point of remembering. Even though Itaru didn’t specifically mention liking the cake, he ordered it each time they came here and mumbled as  _ this is good _ once and it stuck. He had a lot of those types of things stored in his memory just in case Itaru was having a bad day and he wanted to cheer him up.

“This is weird,” Itaru sighed and leaned back, staring at the ceiling, “You’re my best friend and now I feel like I might explode if I choose the wrong option.”

“There aren’t any wrong options, not with me at least. You don’t have to act any different than normal, I already like you,” Banri smiled when Itaru sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, “You’re stressing me out.”

“Sorry, I’m just nervous,” Itaru sat up and sliced the cake in half - shoving it into his mouth without much thought about how it looked to Banri.  _ Act normally,  _ he could do that - he wasn’t well-mannered or affectionate normally. And that sloppy mess of a gamer was the version that Banri liked - not that fake prince charming act he put on, “The idea that this is supposed to be romantic is throwing me off.”

“We don’t have to be romantic, we can just hang out as normal and maybe hold hands if you’re okay with it,” Banri watched as Itaru basically shoveled the rest of the cake into his mouth - saving a bit and pushing it towards him, a cheap attempt as a romantic gesture but Banri still accepted it.

**

“What is it?” Banri leaned over to look at the prizes in the UFO catcher that Itaru was hovering around - it was filled with a bunch of different variations of a plump little cat. Itaru didn’t seem the type that would care about plushies, but the way that he was looking at them was obvious he wanted one.

“Which one do you want?” Banri mumbled, putting the tokens into the machine before he even answered. 

“The pink one,” Itaru mumbled - leaning in to watch as the crane moved over the plush and it lowered onto it, wrapping around it and lifting it. There wasn’t even that anxiety that it might drop that you usually get when playing these things - it was like Banri’s blessing of easy mode passed through him onto the machine and it fell into the shoot with no problem, “Can you get a grey one too?”

“Yeah,” Banri smiled as Itaru took the plush out, looking a bit embarrassed as he held it to his chest. Banri smiled as he grabbed a grey one and it fell into the shoot - Itaru grabbed that one, looking at the rest of the plushes in the machine but he didn’t push Banri to get more, “They’re pretty cute, didn’t think that you would like these sort of things.”

“Ah, they’re from a game series I loved growing up,” Itaru smiled as he attached them to his belt hoop, “I was a pretty obscure game, I didn’t think they would have stuff made still. And have it be easily accessible.” 

“I’ll get them all for you then,” Banri smiled and Itaru let out a nervous chuckle, “If this is a rare find, might as well get them all.”

“Thanks, Banri,” Itaru mumbled - he didn’t want to make a scene about how excited he was to add them to his collection but with how Banri was currently focused on getting them all, he was sure that he could tell. He wasn’t that elusive as Banri was - he just had two different modes that he switched between while Banri was annoyingly cocky to make up for the lack of interest in anything. He didn’t know how to read people and he was sure that if he did, Banri was written in a different language. A group started to gather, mumbles about how good Banri was at the game, and others about how it was unfair that he was getting all the prizes. Itaru didn’t like the attention but stayed next to him, taking the prizes once Banri had collected all the variations.

“ I’ll make sure that I take good care of them,” Itaru said, smiling as Banri attached them to his bag. They were relatively big and Itaru smiled as Banri tried to adjust them so they weren’t in his way. The awkwardness that originally was between them faded; even as when Banri slipped around his hand into his while they walked around, Itaru didn’t get embarrassed and pull away from him. It was a good start and Banri made a mental note that Itaru was much more relaxed here than at the cafe and he should look into those character cafes for their next date - it was a bit gimmicky for a date, but Itaru was easy to distract with the promise of limited time merch. 

“Next date, I’ll take you to the Hi-Cat Land for the KniRound collaboration,” Itaru said, moving in closer to press his forehead against his shoulder and Banri could just barely see how red his face got.  _ Hi-Cat Land,  _ it wasn’t the first place that came to mind thinking about where Itaru would like to go, but a Kniround collab overrides any other options that might have been in the running. Even if hanging out in an amusement park that was more catered to families and cute people. Not a reforming delinquent and a princely salaryman. But even he couldn’t deny seeing Itaru wearing one of those little character headbands that will mostly be a part of the collab lineup would be enough to make his heart stop - especially if he had that same excitement when he spotted the cat plushies.

“Thinking that far ahead, huh?” That wasn’t what he wanted to say, but it came out anyway. He wanted to say that he’d really like that, that he would go anywhere on a date with him, “But sure, we can do that for our next date...” 

**Author's Note:**

> [ Banita Week !! YES!! ](https://twitter.com/banitaweek)   
>  [ My personal twt! ](https://twitter.com/Dicesboyfriend)


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